Report: Jon Jones vs. Glover Teixeira planned for Super Bowl weekend

According to a report from ESPN, citing UFC President Dana White, light heavyweight champion Jon Jones (19-1 MMA, 13-1 UFC) will defend his title against top contender Glover Teixeira (22-2 MMA, 5-0 UFC) – likely at the promotion’s Super Bowl weekend card in New Jersey.

That means Alexander Gustafsson (15-2 MMA, 7-2 UFC), who this past weekend gave the champ the stiffest test of his career, but lost a close unanimous decision, will not get an immediate rematch. Instead, White said, the Swede will get a different opponent early next year in his home country.

And when that wraps up, provided both leave with wins, Jones said he’s prepared to fight Gustafsson again.

White told ESPN the Teixeira fight was requested by Jones.

“That’s what the champ wants,” White said. “We’ll probably have that fight on the Super Bowl card in New Jersey.”

Jones, in a statement released to the website, said he plans on changing anyone’s mind who thought his previous dominance had faded in the Gustafsson fight, which took place at UFC 165 at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre.

“I said before the fight my sights were set on breaking the record,” Jones stated. “I want to crush the record. I want to beat the record so bad it can never be broken. I’m going to fight Glover and I will answer all the critics about the Gustafsson fight. I will fight Gustafsson after I fight Glover. I won the fight but I look at it as a blemish on my record because some people think I didn’t. I promise you, he will be next.”

Jones was a heavy favorite against Gustafsson, but lost the first round on all three judges’ scorecards in Canada. He then lost the second on one of the judge’s cards, as well – though he took the frame on two others. The third round also was contentious.

But in the fourth, he rallied and appeared close to finishing the Swede. Instead, he had to settle for merely winning both rounds and escaping with a 48-47, 48-47, 49-46 victory. The win broke the UFC’s record for consecutive light heavyweight title defenses with six.

The fight was lauded as one of the best title bouts in UFC history due to its highly competitive nature in the face of such a heavy underdog giving a previously utterly dominant favorite such a challenge.

After the fight, thoughts quickly turned to a rematch, and even White said another fight, in some ways, would make sense. But he also wanted to wait to see how things shook themselves out after the dust had settled. Both fighters were unable to attend the post-event news conference, as they were taken to a Toronto hospital. And now that the dust has cleared, it appears Jones wants Teixeira.

Teixeira was named the next No. 1 contender earlier this month after his second-round knockout of Ryan Bader in Brazil. Earlier this week, he told USA TODAY Sports and MMAjunkie.com that he hoped he didn’t lose his spot in line, and that if he had to wait to fight Jones, he would – but he wanted to stay busy.

Now he doesn’t have to worry about that. If he does indeed fight Jones on Super Bowl weekend, it will have been nearly nine years since he most recently lost, a unanimous decision to current UFC fighter Ed Herman in Oregon. Since then, the Brazilian, a longtime training partner of former UFC champ Chuck Liddell, has rattled off 20 straight wins.

While the UFC’s Super Bowl weekend card doesn’t have a title yet, it will take place at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. That same annual card has typically been a pay-per-view in Las Vegas. But with the UFC’s FOX television partnership and the NFL’s Super Bowl taking place on Feb. 2 at MetLife Stadium in nearby East Rutherford – and airing on FOX – the Newark location has been set since early July for Feb. 1. The show could wind up being UFC 169 or UFC 170 as a pay-per-view.

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